BIFA's director general, Steve Parker has several passions driving his term in office, increasing the uptake in insurance and building better relations with the EU are core. 

Parker was speaking to Freightweek at an event in central London last week, when he mentioned the level of freight moving around the globe uninsured was an "unknown". 

"But the thinking is that a good percentage is moving uninsured, and I see some of that come across my desk when things go wrong," Parker tells Freightweek. 

"If you make a decision not to insure your cargo, and that's a conscious decision, then when it all goes wrong you cannot complain."

Parker says that he has heard it all "oh, I didn't know", "how could I have known" and he recognises that insurance is more complex when it comes to freight moving around the world. 

This is because there is not a single policy that can be taken out at the start of the year that covers every piece of cargo that logistics operators are responsible for. 

"You have to take out cover per shipment because what you're shipping and where you are shipping it varies," he says. 

"If you're shipping to certain parts of the world and you're shipping certain products, the premiums go up."

Instilling the need for all those handling cargo to make sure that they are properly insured is just one of the passions driving Parker; the other is Europe. 

"I think we need a bit of a reset with Europe," he says.

Achieving this, he says, means reducing the level of friction currently affecting movement of goods between both sides. 

“When it comes to Europe, we need to make trading as seamless as possible,” Parker concludes.